In the labyrinth of a very one-of-a-kind Congress

 The Colombian Congress has historically operated as an institution hostile to the construction of a true Republic. Its political seats have been used as armchairs from which the constitutional rights of the vast majority have been limited, and relations with the primary constituency are difficult and wearing thin.  

Germán Ayala Osorio*

 

 It is the grandest entrance of public-private corruption. Those who usually participate in this network of corruption are political parties whose legislators are willing to “lead” projects investing in territories where the “fathers of the Nation” originated from. Then, the individual interests of the Parliamentarians appear, who actually operate as lobbyists for companies, including the EPS, which contributed multimillions to their campaigns.

The salaries of these ministers should be paid by those same companies. After all, they are their “servants.” The financing of their campaigns is where corruption begins and the naturalisation of the mafia ethos is confirmed.

Perhaps it is because of these political and cultural circumstances that they are opposed to the State financing these and the presidential campaigns.

There is no way to change this reality that accompanies the devious and mafia-style operation of the Congress of the Republic; as long as businessmen interested in sponsoring their “children or friends,” exist. These have become dangerous, privileged lobbyists.

Those in congress who promoted the collapse of the health insurance system reform project, are the best example of what it means to be a privileged lobbyist, at the service of those who became accustomed to using the billionaire health resources to give free rein to their whims and vanities.

The vast majority of those who come to Congress wish to make a living from politics, which is nothing more than taking advantage of their fifteen minutes of fame, spending four terms living on a paradise island. They are not spurred on by the idea of serving and changing what is working badly in the country. No. They settle in a dark enclosure to wait for the business class or multinationals to tell them what to do and what issue to legislate on, with the clear purpose of finishing privatising the State, affecting the lives of Colombians or the lives of the natural ecosystems.

In that corporation, what is least discussed and built is a vision of the State, that is, a modern one, with a republican spirit that is capable of consolidating a pristine ethos in a population that assumes congress are the true enemies of the people, even surpassing the illegal armed groups (the narco-paras and drug dissidents) in perversity and evil.

The Colombian Congress operates as the largest nursery where the children of a parasitic, violent and degenerate elite are raised. Those who are saved are very few. For the most part, they are there to enrich themselves and extend over time the perverse institutional and para-institutional mechanisms that allow them to achieve that goal. What is worse is that no government dares to outlaw these conditions and mechanisms, so that the only thing they accomplish is confirming that winning a political seat is the best business there is because illegality and cheating have been legitimised under congressional jurisdiction and the always-apparent neatness that is associated with that euphemism with which those in congress acknowledge each other: Honourable Parliamentarian.

This phrase from the former president of Uruguay, Pepe Mujica, should inspire you because he was a long way from the desire to get rich: “For me, politics is the art of extracting collective wisdom by listening.” The austere life of the former Uruguayan president and his ideological coherence never inspired the former congressmen of yesterday, much less those who today hold that “dignity.” They prefer to take as references colleagues like Congresswoman Catherine Juvinao who, in private, made it clear why she came to Congress, in addition to defending the EPS: “I need to make two Chambers, two Senates and then I’m going to an island to see the sea.”

*Germán Ayala Osorio: Social communicator, journalist and political scientist, author of the blog La otra tribuna.

(Translated by Donna Davison. Email: donna_davison@hotmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay